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This year's legislative session turned out to be an ideological struggle, not between Republicans and Democrats but between two factions within the Republican Party. This tension goes to the heart of one's belief in free markets as the most moral and efficient way to organize economic activity...
Published: Monday, October 19th, 2015 @ 10:02 am
By: John Locke Foundation
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The medical code overkill is now here. After a four-year delay, the US health care system has crossed over to an updated medical diagnosis coding system endorsed by the World Health Organization (WHO), formally known as the tenth edition of the International Classification of Diseases, or ICD-10.
Published: Sunday, October 18th, 2015 @ 11:51 am
By: John Locke Foundation
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The truth is that education school enrollment is dropping nationwide. According to the latest Title II reports published by the U.S. Department of Education, there was a 30 percent drop in education school enrollment between the 2008-09 and 2012-13 school years. Nearly 110,000 fewer students...
Published: Thursday, October 15th, 2015 @ 4:39 am
By: John Locke Foundation
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We will offer this allotment of three with more to come; some old, most new, but all quite informative, and, moreover, necessary to understanding that in North Carolina, there is a wiser path to govern ourselves and our People.
Published: Monday, October 12th, 2015 @ 2:38 am
By: Stan Deatherage
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We will offer this allotment of three with more to come; some old, most new, but all quite informative, and, moreover, necessary to understanding that in North Carolina, there is a wiser path to govern ourselves and our People.
Published: Sunday, October 11th, 2015 @ 5:56 am
By: John Locke Foundation
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Nora Carr is the Guilford County Schools Chief of Staff to Superintendent Mo Green and writes columns on communications and messaging for the American School Board Journal.
Published: Saturday, October 10th, 2015 @ 10:36 pm
By: John Locke Foundation
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We will offer this allotment of three with more to come; some old, most new, but all quite informative, and, moreover, necessary to understanding that in North Carolina, there is a wiser path to govern ourselves and our People.
Published: Saturday, October 10th, 2015 @ 9:48 am
By: John Locke Foundation
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In his response to the recent shootings at Umpqua Community College, President Obama made an impassioned plea for more gun control...
Published: Thursday, October 8th, 2015 @ 10:08 pm
By: John Locke Foundation
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Last week, the NC Department of Public Instruction (DPI) released the state's annual teacher turnover report. The overall turnover rate for the 2014-2015 school year climbed to 14.84 percent, a 0.7 percent increase from a year prior. The release of the report generated extensive media coverage, a...
Published: Thursday, October 8th, 2015 @ 7:14 pm
By: John Locke Foundation
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We will offer this allotment of three with more to come; some old, most new, but all quite informative, and, moreover, necessary to understanding that in North Carolina, there is a wiser path to govern ourselves and our People.
Published: Thursday, October 8th, 2015 @ 12:52 am
By: John Locke Foundation
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Much happened in the final hours of the General Assembly session, some good, some bad, and altogether too much in general for those interested in good government to rest easy. The process used had a worrisome lack of openness and transparency.
Published: Wednesday, October 7th, 2015 @ 4:42 pm
By: John Locke Foundation
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One of the many things I like about North Carolina is a provision in the NC General Statutes that forbids collective bargaining by public employees. Thanks to that law, North Carolina public employee unions are, politically, relatively weak. In states without such laws, on the other hand, public...
Published: Wednesday, October 7th, 2015 @ 4:17 am
By: John Locke Foundation
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No report is more controversial, misunderstood, and misread than the Annual Report on Teachers Leaving the Profession.
Published: Tuesday, October 6th, 2015 @ 2:23 am
By: John Locke Foundation
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We will offer this allotment of three with more to come; some old, most new, but all quite informative, and, moreover, necessary to understanding that in North Carolina, there is a wiser path to govern ourselves and our People.
Published: Sunday, October 4th, 2015 @ 10:32 pm
By: Stan Deatherage
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The Rev. Jeremiah Wright told attendees of a Sept. 19 event at a progressive church in Chapel Hill he is "giddily happy" with the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, blamed U.S. foreign policy for the rise of ISIS, and took swipes at President Obama for failing to push racial reparations and...
Published: Saturday, October 3rd, 2015 @ 4:57 pm
By: John Locke Foundation
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Republican legislative leaders finally unveiled their proposed biennial state budget. (Geez, it's about time, folks.) The budget is now subject to votes by each legislative chamber and action by Governor McCrory.
Published: Friday, October 2nd, 2015 @ 4:34 am
By: John Locke Foundation
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Back in June I discussed Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse's disturbing suggestion that energy companies that raise doubts about the Administration's response to climate change should be prosecuted under federal racketeering law. At the time it seemed like a farfetched proposal and a clear violation of the...
Published: Thursday, October 1st, 2015 @ 5:18 pm
By: John Locke Foundation
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Last week the New York Times ran a disgraceful hit piece under the headline: "Clarence Thomas, a Supreme Court Justice of Few Words, Some Not His Own." The headline and the article itself are clearly designed to create the impression that Thomas is not only lazy but possibly a plagiarist as well...
Published: Wednesday, September 30th, 2015 @ 11:33 pm
By: John Locke Foundation
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We will offer this allotment of three with more to come; some old, most new, but all quite informative, and, moreover, necessary to understanding that in North Carolina, there is a wiser path to govern ourselves and our People.
Published: Wednesday, September 30th, 2015 @ 5:59 pm
By: John Locke Foundation
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Last week, the N.C. Department of Public Instruction released student performance data for all schools and school districts in the state. The release included school performance grades, end-of-course and end-of-grade achievement level results, school accountability growth data, the 4-year and...
Published: Wednesday, September 30th, 2015 @ 3:44 am
By: John Locke Foundation
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We will offer this allotment of three with more to come; some old, most new, but all quite informative, and, moreover, necessary to understanding that in North Carolina, there is a wiser path to govern ourselves and our People.
Published: Tuesday, September 29th, 2015 @ 12:03 pm
By: John Locke Foundation
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The State Board of Education's decision to intervene in the affairs of the Halifax County Schools is hardly surprising. Decades of mismanagement and dysfunction have led to high teacher turnover rates and appalling student achievement outcomes.
Published: Tuesday, September 29th, 2015 @ 6:07 am
By: John Locke Foundation
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As part of his remarks while visiting the White House on his first day in the United States, Pope Francis made a strong plea on behalf of religious liberty, which he specifically directed at President Obama. This came shortly before he made an unscheduled visit with the Little Sisters of the Poor...
Published: Tuesday, September 29th, 2015 @ 3:08 am
By: John Locke Foundation
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The term "stakeholders" is used in policy debates frequently. It sounds good and steeped in important involvement. It seems less detached and predatory than "interested parties." It's an accepted convention of speech.
Published: Sunday, September 27th, 2015 @ 11:58 pm
By: John Locke Foundation
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Two weeks ago, I listed some actions by California State Attorney General Kamala Harris that had brought her notoriety, but I ran out of space before I could list them all. One of the actions I omitted pertains to the case of Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association. As I explained last week...
Published: Saturday, September 26th, 2015 @ 12:51 am
By: John Locke Foundation
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If you thought North Carolina was alone when it came to tardy budgets, think again. North Carolina joined Alabama and New Hampshire in passing budgets late last week. Now there are only two states left in the country without budgets, Illinois and Pennsylvania.
Published: Tuesday, September 22nd, 2015 @ 4:53 pm
By: John Locke Foundation
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We will offer this allotment of three with more to come; some old, most new, but all quite informative, and, moreover, necessary to understanding that in North Carolina, there is a wiser path to govern ourselves and our People.
Published: Monday, September 21st, 2015 @ 7:28 pm
By: John Locke Foundation
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After an 80-day extension costing taxpayers well over $1 million, the North Carolina House and Senate chambers have finally reached a tentative budget agreement with a price tag of roughly $22 billion - a fiscally conservative budget considering that spending increased by only 3.1 percent which...
Published: Sunday, September 20th, 2015 @ 3:44 pm
By: John Locke Foundation
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That North Carolina's system of automobile inspections persists is, as I wrote in my 2013 report on Carolina Cronyism, "a triumph of cronyism." North Carolina is one of only 17 states that require safety inspections of automobiles, though there have been frequent legislative efforts to end them...
Published: Saturday, September 19th, 2015 @ 2:27 pm
By: John Locke Foundation
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For those of us who have been fighting to eliminate solar and other renewable energy subsidies from the burden being born by North Carolina's taxpayers, the new state budget is very welcome. As of January 1, the 35 percent tax credit for renewables in general and solar in particular, by far the...
Published: Saturday, September 19th, 2015 @ 5:18 am
By: John Locke Foundation
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Health policy doesn't exactly rank high on the summer reading bucket list. Let's be real - for most people, it's not all that fitting for the beach, and it surely doesn't pair well with red wine during a gossipy book-club meeting.
Published: Tuesday, September 15th, 2015 @ 3:01 am
By: John Locke Foundation
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The previous newsletter discussed in brief how the renewable energy lobby has, over decades, been promising politicians and voters some things they have yet to achieve. Those promises are that...
Published: Monday, September 14th, 2015 @ 2:17 am
By: John Locke Foundation
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It is now being acknowledged by even its staunchest supporters that the solar industry in North Carolina is completely a creature of government mandates and subsidies and could never stand on its own without wealth transfers from taxpayers and rate payers. In other words, it is completely welfare...
Published: Saturday, September 12th, 2015 @ 4:10 am
By: John Locke Foundation
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In a 4-3 decision, the NC Supreme Court ruled that the Opportunity Scholarship Program, which provides vouchers to low-income families, is constitutional. Obviously I am pleased with the outcome, but I am even happier about the timing. The expected release date for the next batch of Supreme Court...
Published: Friday, September 11th, 2015 @ 3:20 am
By: John Locke Foundation
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